1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a charging system that supplies electric power from a power feeding apparatus to a storage battery installed on a vehicle, or the like, and also relates to a pairing method used by the charging system, for specifying correspondence between a charging apparatus that manages charging of the storage battery, and the power feeding apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
As well known in the art, a charging system for charging a storage battery installed on a vehicle, such as a plug-in hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle, often includes a charging apparatus and a power feeding apparatus. The charging apparatus is configured to manage charging of the storage battery installed on the vehicle, inside the vehicle. The power feeding apparatus is configured to supply electric power with which the storage battery is to be charged, from the outside of the vehicle to the charging apparatus, via a power feed line. Namely, in the charging system as described above, the power feeding apparatus as a separate apparatus from the charging apparatus supplies electric power to the charging apparatus when it is connected to the charging apparatus via the power feed line. One example of this type of charging system is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-142096 (JP 2010-142096 A).
The charging system (power feeding system) described in JP 2010-142096 A includes an IC tag and an IC tag reader. The IC tag is incorporated in or mounted on a power receiving plug at a distal end of a cable used for charging the in-vehicle battery (storage battery). The IC tag reader is installed within a charging station (power feeding apparatus) for automobiles, or a power-feeding outlet of a charger, or in the vicinity thereof In operation, the IC tag reader reads data on the IC tag mounted on the power receiving plug, and cross-checks the data thus read and data registered in advance, so that the charging system can start power feeding from the power-feeding outlet if these data coincide with each other.
In recent years, the charging system as described above is desired to have an enhanced or advanced function of charging the storage battery. To this end, a lot of information needs to be supplied and received between the power feeding apparatus and the charging apparatus. While the power feed line that connects the power feeding apparatus with the charging apparatus is normally configured to meet a standard or restrictions for assuring safety, convenience, etc., the power feed line is not configured to be used for communications. Therefore, it is practically difficult to supply and receive information via the power feed line.